


Practical Consequences

by mrsredboots



Category: Ballet Shoes - Noel Streatfeild
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-07-21
Updated: 2019-07-21
Packaged: 2020-07-10 03:56:33
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,689
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19899451
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/mrsredboots/pseuds/mrsredboots
Summary: "It wasn't as easy as all that!"





	Practical Consequences

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Small_Hobbit](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Small_Hobbit/gifts).



Of course, it wasn’t as easy as that. “Things never are,” thought Petrova, as she sat with her family and all the boarders on the evening of that fateful day. It was all very well for Posy to announce blithely that she was going to train in Czechoslovakia with M Manoff and his ballet, and that Nana would accompany her, this to be paid for by Pauline’s 5-year film contract in Hollywood, with Sylvia, their guardian, to go with her. And she, Petrova, the middle sister whose interests were so very different from theirs – she who had been temporarily forgotten by the rest of the family while all this was happening – she would be living with Sylvia’s Great-Uncle Matthew, known as Gum, in “a small house near an aerodrome” so she could learn to fly.

But of course, it wasn’t that easy. Pauline’s contract was signed; that was a given. She and Sylvia would be leaving for Southampton in two weeks to cross the Atlantic on one of the great ocean liners and then to cross the United States by train. It seemed nearly impossible to imagine a country so big that it took several days by train to get from one side to the other. But Mr Reuben, the agent from the film company, would look after their tickets, passports, visas and other permits, and would see to it that they reached Hollywood safely.

It seemed, however, as though it was far otherwise for Posy. M Manoff was not the kind of person to be interested in practicalities – if he said a thing was to happen, then it happened, and he took no interest in how, or whether or not it was difficult. Theo Dane, the dancer who taught in the Academy and who had been a boarder in the Cromwell Road house for the past six years, suggested that she and Sylvia go to the theatre where the company was performing, and find out who the person who organised Manoff's affairs was, and deal with them. “He must have somebody,” said Theo. “All the great people who think themselves above that sort of thing employ someone to do it for them. Or just use people – look at our Posy!”

Posy was blithely unworried about anything. Manoff had agreed to train her, and that was all there was to it, as far as she was concerned. Someone else could, and would, deal with the practicalities. Nana, who had had no idea of ever leaving England before that day, was horrified. “I wouldn’t begin to know how you get to that Check place,” she said. “It’s no good expecting me to take Posy there by myself because I can’t, and won’t.”

“Don’t worry,” said Theo, who was the calmest of all of them. “I am sure Mr Reubens will see to your passports at the same time as he gets Sylvia’s and Pauline’s – at the very least, he can get the forms for you to fill in. And as for the actual journey, you will probably travel with the rest of the company, and they will look after you. If you get held up with passports and so on, you can always get a courier to go with you and deal with officials – or, if you like, I’ll go with you! Most of the Academy will be closed for the summer, and all I had to look forward to was moving into Madame’s apartment, which is going to take all of one day.”

“That would be wonderful,” said Sylvia, “And if you really mean it, Theo, it would be a huge weight off my mind if you would go and see them settled, even if they do travel with the company. But what is worrying me is the girls’ schooling.”

Dr Smith and Dr Jakes, the retired dons who had educated the Fossil sisters for the past six years, came in on that. “Now that Pauline has taken her School Certificate, it won’t matter if she has no more formal education. She has almost definitely got Matriculation exemption, and although we’d have happily taken her through the Higher Certificate, there isn’t really much need.”

“I worry about Petrova, though,” said Dr Smith. “I know she’s technically old enough to leave school, but she’s much too intelligent to! I would like to see her take School Certificate, and perhaps later to specialise in technical subjects. Yes,” – this to Petrova – “I know you want to learn to fly, but you can’t get a licence for another couple of years, and even if you could, it wouldn’t take all your time. With Cook and Clara to run the house for you and your uncle, I think you’d soon be nearly as bored as you were at the Academy!”

Petrova went pink. She had tried so hard not to let people, especially Sylvia, know that the work at the Academy bored her, but while Sylvia had chosen to see what she wanted to see, and had believed Petrova’s blithe assurances that of course she loved ballet and theatre work, other people were less ready to believe her. Petrova had thought that only Mr and Mrs Simpson knew how much she had hated most of the past six years.

“You are mean!” she said to Mr Simpson now. “I thought it was our secret, that I found it boring!”

“Now, Petrova,” said Dr Smith. “Mr Simpson didn’t say anything; it was obvious to us, but probably not to anybody else.”

“I knew, of course,” said Pauline, “But I don’t think Posy did, and I know Garnie didn’t.”

“But whenever I asked,” said Sylvia, uncomfortably, “you always said you loved it there!”

“Well, I had to, of course,” said Petrova, even more miserably. “It is the only way I could earn any money as a child; I couldn’t tell you how much I hated it because, even if I couldn’t earn very much, I could at least earn something!”

“And that, of course, is my fault,” said Gum, who had been listening intently. “I hadn’t even realised how long I’d been away until I came home and found the house full of beautiful young women, rather than the babies I was expecting. I am sorry that I left you in such straits – but you seem to have managed extremely well, and I’m proud of you all. And now I shall have Petrova to keep me on the straight and narrow, and to remind me that you all exist. What were you saying about schooling for the younger ones?” he asked Dr Smith.

“Well, we, as you know, have been coaching them all for the last six years. Posy has never been what you might call a bookish child, and although technically she’s too young, I don’t think it will matter if she has no further formal education. I don’t know what the situation is for younger dancers in Manoff’s company, but I am sure that’s something that you can find out, Miss Dane.”

“Yes, indeed. And I do know how difficult it is to teach Posy anything she doesn’t want to learn,” replied Theo, which produced a general laugh from those who knew how Posy had misbehaved in the senior ballet classes she had decided she was too advanced for.

“Well, anyway,” said Dr Smith, with an anxious look at Sylvia, to whom much of this was news. The girls had done what they could to protect their guardian from the ups and downs of their daily lives, reckoning, correctly, that she had more than enough worries of her own making ends meet and trying not to take more of the girls’ earnings than she could help.

“I’m most concerned about Petrova. You, Sir, say you will take a little house near an aerodrome so she can learn to fly, but she’s still a little young for that. I’m wondering whether you would consider living near us in Bloomsbury for a year or so to allow her to finish her education.”

Mr Simpson joined in. “It would be easy enough to get to the civil airfields from Bloomsbury – I could take you on summer Sundays, as I do now. And when you are older, you can move nearer one of the airfields.”

“Certainly Petrova must finish her education. You would prefer studying with the doctors to going to school? I would happily find a house near a good school, so you could go daily.”

“No, thank you,” said Petrova. “Given a choice, I’d rather study with the doctors still. At school, it would be like the Academy – lots of other girls who really aren’t interested in the same things as I am, and who would find me strange. That is,” she added hastily, “if you two would still want to take me on!”

“Of course we would,” said Dr Jakes. “That’s why we took the flat we did, so it would be near the Academy, when we thought you’d still be going there. Also, Bloomsbury suits us, of course, because of the British Museum, but we don’t have to live there forever, if you and Professor Brown would like to live further out of town.”

“No, we’ll stay in town for now, and I’d like to look for somewhere near the British Museum, too,” said Gum. “I bought this house originally for its proximity to the South Kensington museums, but the British Museum has some of my fossils, too.”

The talk went on, late into the night. Nana took Posy off to bed and encouraged both Petrova and Pauline to go, too. But the adults sat round, reluctant to leave this last night when they would all be together.

“I left you to bring up my little Fossils on your own,” said Gum. “It was extremely short-sighted and selfish of me, but, as Petrova will find out, I do tend to be short-sighted and selfish. She will have to learn to challenge me when that happens. That, however, is not what I started to say, which was that I think you can congratulate yourself, Sylvia, on an excellent job well done!”

And the others agreed.


End file.
